Thursday, 4 September 2014

Angry trainer

It's la rentrée, the time when French families come back from their holidays, workers go back to work and the kids go back to school. It's the time for vide greniers, that is, car boot sales, and they're always good for a nosey browse.

The cross-trainer is a recently-invented excercise machine, you can work quite hard with it, and it has the advantage that there is little or no physical shock transmitted to the body; i.e. it's low impact. It's also called a elliptic trainer, and the French call it a vélo éliptique; an elliptic bike. I call it an angry trainer just to be awkward.

Our little gym in the gîte features a stepper, a rowing machine, an excercise bike and a treadmill, but up until now, no cross-trainer. Since I'm on a fitness kick at the moment (part of managing diabetes) I have been on the lookout for one, to add a bit of variety to my indoor training.

Well I found one at the car boot last weekend. Domyos brand, a good name for gym kit, not a current model but only a couple of years old and according to the one careful lady owner, scarcely used. 50 euros, say 45 quid. I bought it. Looks like a bargain. If it falls to bits in a fortnight I'll let you know.

It's not for heavy use, (recommended 45 minutes/day average) and I won't come close to that. I was a bit worried that, since it is intended for relatively light use, the resistance available would be inadequate; I wouldn't be able to work out hard enough. Well, after 45 minutes on the lightest setting, I'm pleased to note that this is not the case. But it told me I'd used up over 500 calories. If my treadmill ever told me I'd used that much, I think I would have killed myself; just 150 calories on that and I'm knackered. They can't both be right.

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Me

By a beautiful river valley in North-West France. This blog is about the day-to-day events in running a group gîte in Mayenne. There's a lot of gardening, maintenance, but, I hope, a lot of fun too.
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